Pope Francis, 86, canceled his appointments on Friday morning due to a feverish state, the Vatican said amid regular concerns about the Argentine pontiff's health.
"Due to a feverish state, Pope Francis did not receive an audience this morning," said Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni, without specifying what the Argentine Pope's planned program was for the morning.
This announcement comes two months after the Pope was hospitalized for three days in Rome at the end of March due to pneumonia, which he had recovered after being treated with antibiotics.
Pope Francis said Thursday in an interview with Spanish television Telemundo that this pneumonia had been treated "on time." "If we had waited a few more hours, it would have been much more serious," he said.
As for his knee pain, which forces him to move in a wheelchair or with the help of a cane, he indicated that he felt "much better." "Some days are more painful than others, like today, but that's part of recovery," he said.
Questioned about his health at the end of April, upon returning from a trip to Hungary, the Pope expressed his intention to continue traveling: he must travel to Lisbon from August 2 to 6 for World Youth Days (WYD) and then to Marseille. in September, as well as in Mongolia.
The Pope usually receives his interlocutors - associations, religious, heads of state - in the morning at the Vatican for official audiences in which he regularly delivers speeches, while his afternoons are dedicated to work and private appointments.
Despite his advanced age, the head of the Catholic Church maintains a steady pace in his appointments, sometimes receiving a dozen interlocutors in one morning. On Thursday he addressed in particular the nuns, the Italian episcopal conference and a group of young people from the Scholas Occurrentes educational network.
The health of Jorge Bergoglio, elected in 2013, regularly fuels speculation about the possibility of a resignation from his position and his succession.
He has said on several occasions that he would consider resigning - like his predecessor Benedict XVI, who died in December - if his health failed, but recently said it was not topical.
In July 2021, the Bishop of Rome had already been hospitalized for 10 days for a heavy colon operation. He affirms that he has suffered "aftermath" of the anesthesia, which has led him to rule out knee surgery.
During an interview in January, Jorge Bergoglio said that they again suffer from diverticulitis, an inflammation of the diverticula, hernias or bags that form in the walls of the digestive tract.
The Pope is constantly followed by a team of caretakers, both in the Vatican and on his trips abroad.
A precaution that is all the more necessary since he has a heavy medical past behind him: at the age of 21 he had suffered acute pleurisy and the surgeons had proceeded to partially remove his right lung.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
